Annual audiovisual expo InfoComm debuted its first ever TIDE conference at the three-day show in Orlando, Florida. Lauren Heath-Jones filed this report

TIDE – Technology. Innovation. Design. Experience – is a brand new thought-leadership conference designed to give context to the technology exhibited at Infocomm. The one-day conference focused on the ways in which businesses can create experiences that customers will respond well to, and how technology can be utilised to deliver those experiences.

The event was themed around storytelling and featured presentations from an array of speakers from a diverse range of industries, including design, marketing, retail and the creative sector.

More than 150 delegates listened to talks on storytelling in the audiovisual industry, with each speaker exploring ways in which technology can be used to enable and enhance a story or experience, rather than it being the point of it. The speakers were consistently excellent, with each presentation offering a unique and interesting perspective.

The event was presided over by blogger, digital strategist, author and self-proclaimed “techie” Luvvie Ajaye, who brought a relatable warmth to proceedings and kept the audience fully engaged throughout.

EMOTIONAL JOURNEY
The day began with a keynote speech delivered by former Simpsons animator and Pixar storytelling veteran Matthew Luhn. Luhn started his career as an animator at The Simpsons, until a chance visit to the writer’s room inspired him to pursue a career in storytelling. Luhn left The Simpsons at the end of its third season and joined the then unknown animation studio, Pixar. He has worked on every Pixar movie since Toy Story.

Luhn’s speech, which was called Storytelling for the Business of AV, aimed to answer two questions. What makes a good story? How can this be used to connect to an audience?

Luhn primarily addressed the emotional journey that impactful stories take their audience on, and how that helps to create an authentic connection with the audience. He said that storytelling creates great experiences, and discussed how its application can assist with bridging the gap between “business and heart”.

He says: “Stories are meaningful when they’re memorable, impactful and personal.”

ENDURING EXPERIENCE
Following Matthew Luhn was Jake Barton, the principal and founder of experience design studio Local Projects. Barton’s speech, titled The Intersections of Space and Storytelling: Interactive AV Exhibit Design, discussed some of Local Projects recent works, including a collaboration with The ARoS Art Museum in Aarhus, Denmark. The partnership saw the New York-based company create three interactive experiences for the museum; one of which, The Art of Seeing, used eye-tracking technology to monitor user’s eye movements when looking at a work of art.

Local Projects previously partnered with world-leading architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) to create a 10-foot (3-metre) sculptural heart in Times Square on Valentine’s Day 2012. Made from 400 acrylic tubes, embedded with red LED lights, the heart was an interactive installation that could match the heartbeat of those interacting with it.

In recent years, Local Projects has also worked on the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum and the Museum of the City of New York.

Barton says: “The experience endures even though the technology becomes dated. The emotional connection is the core, amplified by technology.”

MAKING MEMORIES
Barry Ross Rinehart, creative director of Multi-Image Group, gave a speech on the foundations of a good memory. He said that for an experience to be memorable it must be three things: extremely sensory, emotional and extraordinary.

He argued that the brain erases ordinary experiences in a process called habituation. Once the brain becomes used to an event, it will no longer expend the energy to remember it, as it has become ordinary.

Rinehart says: “To create long-term memories we must design a variety of extraordinary sensory experiences that trigger specific extreme emotions.”

Rinehart told Attractions Management: “Humans can only remember the extraordinary – the most sensual and emotional moments. That’s why I try to convince professionals to focus on strategically exploiting emotion and sensory delivery systems – such as stories, technology, and personal human interactions – to craft unexpected experiences that the brain can’t forget.”

AUTHENTICITY
The general consensus amongst all the speakers was the importance of authenticity and the need to create lasting impressions, memories and experience, with these experiences taking priority over the actual technology. The experience must come first, the tech second.

Other speakers at TIDE included: Nonny de la Pena, the “godmother of virtual reality” and founder of Emblematic Projects, Oak Labs CEO and co-founder Healey Cypher, TAIT’s COO Eric Grossman, Toshi Hoo director of research at the Emerging Media Lab and Jason Crusan director of Advanced Exploration Systems at NASA.